The Story of the Woman's PartyGillmore, Inez Haynes
History
The Story of the Woman's Party
Gillmore, Inez Haynes
National Woman's Party; Paul, Alice, 1885-1977; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Basing our estimate on the charges made by friends of the candidates
whom we were forced, by reason of the action of their Party, to
oppose, the Congressional Union campaign defeated Representative
Neely of Kansas, Mr. Flegel of Oregon, and Representative
Seldomridge of Colorado; and contributed in large measure to the
defeat of Mr. Hawley of Idaho, Mr. James H. Moyle of Utah, and Mr.
Roscoe Drumheller of Washington, and greatly lessened the majorities
of Senator Smith of Arizona, Senator Thomas, and Mr. Keating of
Colorado.
The campaign of the Congressional Union accomplished exactly what
its members hoped and expected that it would accomplish. If their
purpose had been merely to unseat Democrats, they would, of course,
have taken the districts in the United States where the Democrats
had won by very slight majorities. When they went into such strongly
Democratic States as Arizona and Colorado, they did not expect to
unseat any of the Democratic candidates in those States. Their
purpose was to make Woman Suffrage an ever-present political issue
in the States where women have political power until all the women
of the United States shall be enfranchised, and to lay in those
States the foundations for permanent and constantly-growing support
of the franchise work at Washington. They succeeded in making the
record of the Democratic Party on Woman Suffrage (an issue which
would not otherwise have been heard of) widely known and hotly
discussed in the Suffrage States.
In the meantime, Suffrage had come up again and again in Congress. On
October 10, 1914, during discussion of the Philippine Bill, conferring a
greater measure of self-government on Filipino men, Representative Mann
of Illinois proposed on that date that the franchise measure in the Bill
be so amended as to give the vote to women on the Islands. This
Amendment was lost by a vote of fifty-eight to eighty-four. On October
12, Representative J. W. Bryan of Washington, Progressive, proposed
three other Amendments: One, making women eligible to vote in school
elections, which was lost by a vote of eleven to twenty-seven; one
giving the vote to women property-owners, which was lost by a vote of
nine to twenty-seven, and one giving the Philippine legislature power to
extend the right of Suffrage to women at any future time, which was lost
by a vote of eleven to twenty-seven. The Amendments were defeated by
strictly Party votes, the Democrats voting almost solidly against them,
while the Progressives and Republicans supported them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account